Natural selection contributes to the myopia epidemic

作     者：Erping Long Jianzhi Zhang Erping Long;Jianzhi Zhang

作者机构：Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of Michigan State Key Laboratory of OphthalmologyZhongshan Ophthalmic CenterSun Yat-sen University 

出 版 物：《National Science Review》 (国家科学评论(英文版))

年 卷 期：2021年第8卷第6期

页      面：128-135页

核心收录：

学科分类：1010[医学-医学技术（可授医学、理学学位）] 10[医学] 

基　　金：supported by the US National Institutes of Health research grant (GM103232) to J.Z supported by the International Program for Doctoral Students from Sun Yat-sen University 

主　　题：allele frequency natural selection antagonistic pleiotropy evolution myopia reproduction 

摘      要：The prevalence of myopia, or nearsightedness, has skyrocketed in the past few decades, creating a public health crisis that is commonly attributed to lifestyle changes. Here we report an overall increase in the frequencies of myopia-associated mutant alleles over 25 years among participants of the UK *** myopia itself appears to be selected against, many of the mutant alleles are associated with reproductive benefits, suggesting that reproduction-related selection inadvertently contributes to the myopia epidemic. We estimate that, in the UK alone, natural selection adds more than 100 000 myopia cases per generation, and argue that antagonistic pleiotropy be broadly considered in explaining the spreads of apparently disadvantageous phenotypes in humans and beyond.